A Perfect Storm of Doubt

Just finished reading the whole of the thread...God it was long...

I have a Prius 3gen since mid-Sep. Apart from a very annoying FM reception issue that I find unacceptable in a 25k€ car (yes, it costs that much in EU - there is a whole thread about this), I still have to realise how nice this car is. I still get chills down my spine when driving it through crawling traffic and seeing the consumption go down. Or being in a silent cocoon, remembering how on earth I could have imagined that cars would always, continuously make noise, or still be surprised that after turning on, the car does move with no noise - there is no "brum brum" anymore (sometimes I switched the car off, thinking I didn't turn it on.....).

No car is perfect, and these websites are the first places you will read complaints about a product. In forums, you will most likely read more people complaining or looking for a solution to a problem, rather than people simply starting a thread saying "the car is perfect/I love my car/no problems" etc.

I had for 7 years a VW Polo 1.4L TDI - I have spent over the 7 years 500€/year on average on repairs for faulty or broken parts (not considering all the stuff they changed during the first 2 years of warranty). I never was left in the middle of nowhere from the Polo, but my trust of VW and its quality as gone well below zero.

So, not even remotely considering to by a VW and not finding any real modern car out there that would have good fuel consumption in town, I looked already 2 years ago at the Prius 2Gen and decided that I did not like the handling, the power and the overall fuel consumption (compared to my diesel Polo). Undecided and without reading any forum, I ended up waiting 2.5 years before getting my current Prius.
How I ended up deciding getting one? I was in Japan this summer for vacation, seen how they live and how they do things, saw a Gen3 first hand parked someplace, liked it - flown back, thought about it a couple of weeks and then ordered one. Toyota could not be any worse than VW. Or Fiat or Peugeot or Citroen, or even BMW or Audi for that matter...I was so fed up with my Polo that I also thought "I cannot wait another year for the new Prius production to be "broken-in"". So I bought almost blindly (I did test drive it though...) the car. I did read a bit about it and I was aware of some known limitations (for example rear view visibility).

I honestly have doubts about Toyota keeping overall quality considering the amount of vehicles they build per year (6-7M/year, if I am not wrong) and the fact that they are already market leaders: they are not really fighting to be at the top and this is "dangerous".
A Japanese colleague of mine (that lives in Japan) said he doesn't like Toyota because of its 80% approach, compared to the 100% of Honda. Too bad that the Insight is not the Prius. And hopefully Toyota 80% is 100% compared to the 20% (or less) of my VW Polo. Like all huge companies, they might be at the brink of making mistakes, big ones. But each car is a self-contained project and there is all the interest from Japan, who invented the concept of quality, to sell stuff they don't need to fix once out there in the field. They understand the meaning of customer satisfaction, quality issues costs, and so on.

I had no problem with the grabbing brakes; I had twice the "braking-gap", but nothing to talk home about since it happens at really low speeds and something similar happens with ABS in any case (happened on my Polo more than once) if you break hard on roads where the wheels can "jump" while breaking; no rattles/squeaks - actually being the car *so* silent, any single whisper sounds like a "oh my God" I have a rattle - until now it has not been the dashboard, rather something else moving, vibrating in the car.

I believe there are a lot of very high expectations on this car. Many "normal" things common to all cars (ie the 5% overestimation of the fuel consumption) are seen as a "major" problem that Toyota "must address immediately" and so on. The same happens with Apple products - just read a few forums on Apple products and it seems they are buggier than competition - too bad it is not the truth, quite the contrary.

To end my lengthy post: if you can wait, do so and maybe by mid-end of next year a new version will be made or minor changes will be made to the current production to improve issues. If Toyota is getting worse, wait for some new customer satisfaction surveys (also coming outside of the US) or reliability reports (also on other car types) and see what happens.

Otherwise if these doubts you have are so pressing, and I understand reading Priuschat it might seem as if the "Prius" is a mess, look elsewhere - but again, having doubts based on a forum where, again, drivers do get on average into, to seek out solutions for "problems" I don't think it is the best way to decide whether to buy a car.
I would rather look into the specs, consumer reports and after all, this is warranty is for. Regarding possible problems about "safety" - there are many Prius 2010 drivers out there and it doesn't seem to me that there is any statistical relevance, to hint to the fact that drivers have had *real* issues with brakes.

And when I heard a colleague who own an Audi A3 that shut down by itself on the highway and then was told to the dealer that it was due to the computer's log, full of error messages and therefore programmed to shut down the engine for safety reasons (!!?!?!?) and that he should remind the dealer each time the car is brought in, to have the error log cleared, well....I doubt that the Prius is any way worse....

 

PS: it also all depends on the expectations one has for this car - for me the FM reception is a true "big" problem, unacceptable for such a car, for somebody else always listening to CDs, MP3s and iPod and has never used the FM radio at all, it might be a non-problem at all and the radio might just be "perfect" as it is. Somebody who has been driving a Rolls Royce might think the Prius is junk, while somebody who has been driving only small cars and a Polo for 7 years, it might be "perfect" (except the FM reception issue), even with its little quirks ("brake gap" which for me is not a safety issue, as is and for the number of times on over 6500km I have experienced it - twice, that is).

 

I have several cars at the momemnt, most noteable is my 911s. But I'm not foolish enough to compare a Porche with the prius. No more than I would compare a Rolls with a Prius. The Prius is what it is, and it's primary function (unless I missed something) is to provide reliable transportation with record breaking (at least in the US) MPGs.

 

Dang....I was wondering where that thread went!

I guess the Prius monitors don't like us second amendment guys...shame this site controls our right to free speech...

Oh boy...you may never hear from me again after that remark.

 

Another advantage with buying used, I test drove the car I actually bought, not one just like it. I drove a few examples and the one I bought drove the best of them all. You get what is presented to you when you buy new. I could bagain with the dealer, and I did and saved a further $2500. Plus I got the bonnet resprayed and a new front suspension strut before purchase.

 

You don't have a right to free speech on a privately owned forum.

Tom

 

not sure how they do things down under, but every car i've ever purchased (all new) was the one i test drove, not one just like it.

 

When we got our 05, it was via a waiting list. So yes, we had to test drive a car that was not the one we were buying.
When I bought my 08. It was on a boat in transit when I purchased it. I had no need for a test drive anyways, we already had one. Which is why we were back for a 2nd one!

 

EM,

It is a mistake to add up all the issues many owners individually found and thought Murphy would come to you (everything you listed would go wrong).

You should work for Toyota or Lexus. You will be a great asset/resourse for the pursuit for perfection with passion.

 

I think he works for VW already. He pushes the TDI pretty hard.

 

The new car sales tax deduction ends tonight.

 

Yes, I am kidding.

Though there are dealers of other cars roaming here, stirring the pot, etc. Claiming that gas will be $1.50 soon, and pretty much anything else they can lie about to deter potential Prius owners.